Champ, William

CHAMP, William (1843–1928) was born at Lambeth, Surrey, England, second son of Francis Champ, a ship builder and carpenter, and Anne Mervin, and named after his grandfather, a bricklayer. The family had close connections with the sea and by 1861 William was serving with the Royal Navy as a ‘boy 1^st class’ on HMS Cressyin the Mediterranean. Other brothers served with the navy, merchant marine or built barges. William married Elizabeth Harriett Nash, daughter of a fisherman, at Charlton, Middlesex on 16 April 1865. By June 1869 he was at Beenleigh, working as a carpenter and from 1871-73 also as proprietor of the Carpenters’ Arms Hotel, Pimpama. Having observed sugar planting in the Logan district, he acquired cane land on the north bank of the Pioneer River, Mackay, and invested in the nearby Mount Orange Copper Mining Co. He may have held both only briefly and by 1882 was a contractor at Maryborough. In 1883 he began business as Champ & Schulz, carpenters and builders, tendering unsuccessfully for a courthouse and police station at Howard. By May 1884 Champ moved to Bundaberg where he entered partnership with John William Morgan as Champ & Morgan, builders and contractors, to build FDG STANLEY’s Grand Hotel but due to higher costs in Bundaberg than Maryborough, the cost of this lavish hotel exceeded their tender of £3100 by £800. A disputed valuation for extras and changes delayed completion within the contract time but without capital, the partners were unable to pursue a claim against Stanley. By mid-1885 the partnership and both partners were insolvent. In 1888 Champ began practice with the Bundaberg architect Anton HETTRICH as HETTRICH & CHAMP. The partnership was dissolved in 1891. Taking over the firm’s office in the Bundaberg School of Arts and practicing on his own, Champ had little success in the recession and removed his office to his residence in Goodwin Street in 1893. Subsequently he was involved with the sugar industry at Cordalba after 1895 and the Knockroe Mill in the Isis Scrub in 1896-97. He was listed as an architect in 1905 at Childers, and in 1908 at the Isis Central Mill at Childers. After he retired c1910, he was a farmer at Childers, but during World War 1 he moved to Nundah where he lived with his son. He died of old age in Brisbane on 26 October 1928.